Word.ws English Dictionary

chops

UK/t͡ʃɒps/US/t͡ʃɑps/

chops noun: jaws, lips, mouth. Also the plural of chop.

Noun (1)

chops pl (plural only)

  1. (plural, plural-only, slang) Jaws, lips, mouth.
    • […]who knows but ſome fine lady of St. James's pariſh might admit into her delicate mouth thoſe very cherries, which had been rolled and moiſtened between the filthy, and, perhaps, ulcerated chops of a St. Giles's huckſter[…]1771, [Tobias Smollett], The Expedition of Humphry Clinker […], volume I, London: […] W. Johnston, […]; and B. Collins, […], →OCLC, page 174
    • If we'd a had a second-hand crystal ball to look into, we’d have seen the lean and gripy times ready to smack us in our chops by the year the depression rolled around, when the big commercial outfits got complete control of the popular-music business.1946, Milton “Mezz” Mezzrow, Bernard Wolfe, “Forgottenest Man in Town”, in Really the Blues, New York, N.Y.: Random House, book 2 (1923–1928: Chicago, Chicago), page 139
  2. (plural, plural-only) One's skill at musical interpretation and delivery; musical performance ability.
    • Although the bass player had no experience playing in New Orleans, the crowd's enthusiastic response showed that he had the chops to make it in the very particular Crescent City jazz scene.
    • Recently, I have taken up the double bass again, but because time and neglect erode ability, calluses turn soft, and muscle memory fades, I need to woodshed (practice) to get back into shape and build up my chops.1999 June, Al Stevens, “Jukebox: Covering the Basses”, in Dr. Dobb's Journal, volume 24, number 6, San Francisco, Calif.: Miller Freeman, Inc., →ISSN, page 115
  3. (broadly, informal, plural, plural-only) One's skill at any endeavor; ability, talent; competency.
    • Although he did not know all of the ins and outs of the newsroom, he had the writing chops to become a regular contributor.
    • ["]If you don't have a guy who gives you that, despite the greatest acting chops in the world, the show is not going to succeed," Gilligan adds.2009 March 6, Alan Sepinwall, quoting Vince Gilligan, “Sepinwall on TV: Bryan Cranston talks 'Breaking Bad' season two”, in The Star-Ledger, archived from the original on 16 Nov 2011
  4. (plural, plural-only) The area where two tides meet and cause an irregular (choppy) sea.
  5. (plural, plural-only) A pattern that involves carrying the object with the hand over the next object before throwing it.
  6. (Australia, Nigeria, plural, plural-only, slang) Food.

Noun (2) capitalized: CHOPs

CHOPs

  1. (plural) plural of CHOP

Also used as

chops is also the plural of chop.

chops is also the third-person singular simple present indicative of chop.

chops is also the alternative form of chopse.

chops meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali

chops in Hindi

चॉप्स, चोप्स

chops in Marathi

चॉप्स, चोप्स

chops in Urdu

چوپس, چاپس, چاپز

chops in Bengali

চপস, চপ্স
More languagesFewer languages
chops in Telugu
చాప్స్, చోప్స్
chops in Malayalam
ചോപ്സ്
chops in Kannada
ಚಾಪ್ಸ್, ಚಾಪ್ಗಳು
chops in Punjabi
ਚੋਪਸ, ਚੱਪਸ, ਚਪਸ
chops in Gujarati
ચૉપ્સ, ચોપ્સ
chops in Odia
ଚପ୍ସ୍, ଚପ୍ସ
chops in Nepali
चोप्स, चपहरू

Examples of chops in a sentence

  • Pork chops boiled with turnip greens make a mighty fine meal.
  • I've been busting my chops to get this out by end of day.
  • I only like lamb chops with mint jelly.

All 40 example sentences with chops

Forms of chops

third-person singular presentchopses
present participlechopsing
past participlechopsed
pastchopsed

Origin of chops

From the plural of chop (“jaw, side of a harbour”). The jazz slang sense “musical ability” is a reference to the use of the lips to blow instruments.

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Words formed from chops

Phrases with chops

14 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with chops

1 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about chops

What does chops mean?
Chops means jaws, lips, mouth.
What is chops in Hindi?
Chops in Hindi is चॉप्स, चोप्स. See Chops meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is chops?
Chops is a noun.
How do you pronounce chops?
Chops is pronounced /t͡ʃɑps/ (US).

Words near chops in the dictionary

  1. Chopps
  2. choppy
  3. choppy-changey
  4. Chopra
  5. Chopras
  6. chops
  7. chops and changes
  8. chops down
  9. chops it up
  10. chops off
  11. chops out

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: chops (page history and authors); CHOPs (page history and authors); chops (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); chops (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); chops (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); chops (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); chops (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); chops (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); chops (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); chops (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); chops (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); chops (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); chops (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-chops.ogg.

Cite this entry: “chops.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/chops. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.